@GorehamJ is probably the best person to answer this quesiton above!
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Hi George. I have been not only owning tires but also testing them for many years. I know, I am blessed to have this gig. I asked this question to a long-time tire trailer and racer in the Boston area. The owner told me “Just get the Michelins.” He said that it is not uncommon for him to have to try 5 tires to get 4 good ones with many brands, and this was in the context of all-season touring tires. Not crazy off-road tires or anything custom. I was having the chat because indeed a set of 4 tires provided to me for testing had one with visible flat spots, and could not be used, and another would not balance perfectly. Thus, 3 of 5 were sent back. He told me the Mfgs never question the shop’s return of any tire for out-of-round or difficulty balancing. In his experience, Mchelin had the best likelihood of a good first-time balance with few weights. Cheers,
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I have seen cheap tires balance out with no wights, and I have seen Michelins vibrate after being balanced from 3 different shops including being road forced balanced a few times, after 3 sets finally put the customer in a different brand… I have seen many Michelins that were ground down smooth (no or very little runout)…
I am not picking on Michelins, just saying I have seen junk tires as well as high end tires and everything in between be good or bad, sometimes it is just the luck of the draw…
BTW any vibration complaint(s) that is $0.00 warrantied out at a BSRO corp store has a bar code that prints out when the WO is closed out and it has to be taped to the tire and sent back on the Bridgestone tire truck and is looked at before the store is given credit back for the tire that replaced it…
Good info, thanks for the feedback @GorehamJ 
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 Not the all seasons, the summer tires.
I just finished the 2nd track day with these on my Mustang. Holy Smokes these are great. Very good in the Florida rain. Predictable and controllable at the limits and beyond. They aren’t stickiest tires I’ve used but none of them had a 30K mile warranty.
Everything is a compromise but for my use Michelin Defenders have been the best overall. Expensive to buy but figuring cost per mile they’re among the cheapest.
50 years ago my favorite tires were made by General. I was impressed that they lasted 20,000 miles on my Falcon Wagon. I liked them so much that I took them down and had them recapped for $10 each.
I just don’t remember ever getting a bad tire where they had to replace one or two to get the four balanced. Usually on the sets the last ten years, they order them for next day delivery from the warehouse. I know they don’t order a couple extra just in case. I get all season though, not performance tires.
I’ve been on the road since about '83 (so I’m still a spring chicken!), and have driven somewhere in the couple-few millions of miles range. In all of that time I’ve ended up with only one defective tire. It was a middle-of-the-road, typical all-season Pirelli - P400, I think. After some decent number of miles (over 10K? Can’t recall exactly) it developed tread separation.
Other than that, in the last few years I’ve had more than the usual number of slow bead leaks - but that’s an entirely different issue and IDK why it has seemed to become more common. Probably random - and/or maybe a decline in tire install tech expertise?
I would say due to the increase in the popularity of alloy wheels vs steel wheels.
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Michelin. I’ve been driving for 50 years now, and regardless of make/model or tire type, Michelin is the best. Period. No discussion. I’ve run their all-season radial on large luxury cars, subcompacts, and trucks large and small, and they are the best for wear, handling, road noise, ride. Michelin is the best.
I find no difference between the Michelins I have now and the Wranglers they replaced. Perhaps they will wear longer, only time and mileage will tell.